Colin Fleming

Colin Fleming (born 13 August 1984) is a British retired professional tennis player who specialised in doubles.

As part of the Davis Cup team, he won eight successive doubles matches to help Great Britain into the World Group.

He also won his doubles match in the World Group quarter final against Italy.

Fleming left high school in 2001 at age 17 to study economics & finance at the University of Stirling as a sports bursar.

The university offered him the opportunity to continue with his tennis training and competition as part of a high quality programme, otherwise he would have become a social player at that time.

His tennis career was supported by the university when they enabled him to take two sabbatical years from 2004 to turn pro and join the tour.

Fleming partnered Jamie Murray, winning their first Futures tournament on 4 September 2005 at the Great Britain F10 Futures in Nottingham.

Fleming/Murray followed this with Futures titles at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Exmouth, amassing a total of four Futures plus four satellite tournaments.

In April 2006, Fleming was selected for the Davis Cup match against Serbia and Montenegro

Fleming and Jamie Murray's success gained them a wildcard into the main draw of the men's doubles at Wimbledon though they lost in the first round.

Fleming achieved career highs for singles and doubles, but in summer 2006, Fleming decided to quit the tour to return to Stirling in order to complete his University degree.

Fleming said "At that stage I had no intentions of ever playing full-time again."

He graduated with First Class Honours in 2007 and secured a graduate scheme position as an energy trader where he worked for ten months.

Fleming helped Giffnock win the Scottish Cup and also represented his local club Linlithgow in the national league.

With his hunger rekindled and his head set on making it in pro tennis, Colin decided to return to the tour in August 2008.

Fleming considered himself to have turned properly professional in the summer of 2008, when he was 24.

In September, Fleming qualified for the singles in the Nottingham Futures F14, eventually reaching the semi-finals.

A week later, Fleming played the singles in the Nottingham Futures F15, this time losing in the quarter-finals.

Ken Skupski was looking for a fellow British doubles partner who was capable of going to the top of the game, and thought Fleming's game style suited his.

Fleming/Skupski won three Futures in Glasgow, London, Sunderland

and the Caversham International Challenger in Jersey.

The pair came to be known as 'Flemski'.

Ken Skupski finished the year there because he'd had a long year, but Fleming continued by partnering Jonny Marray in the Czech Republic and winning two Futures in Frydland Nad Ostravici, and Opava

In February, the Davis Cup captain John Lloyd decided to hold play-offs between six British tennis hopefuls to determine the players for the next tie.

Fleming won one match, but Josh Goodall and Chris Eaton were chosen for the singles.

He has reached nineteen ATP Tour doubles finals in his career, winning eight of them: two in 2009, 2012 and 2013 and one in 2011 and 2015.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he won the mixed doubles gold medal with Jocelyn Rae for Scotland.

In 2011, he had his best doubles Grand Slam results, reaching the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, and then two months later equalling it at the US Open.

He has had a number of different partners, but primarily played alongside his British compatriots, most notably Ross Hutchins, Jamie and Andy Murray, Ken Skupski and Jonathan Marray.

Fleming's most successful partnership has been with Ross Hutchins, however whilst Hutchins was off the tour with illness, Fleming spent most of 2013 partnering with Marray.

He retired from professional tennis in January 2017, to take up the new position of national coach for Tennis Scotland.

Fleming first picked up a tennis racquet as a toddler and copied his older siblings by playing for a local club in Linlithgow.

When he was eight, he began playing in mini tennis tournaments.

Working his way up through the ranks Colin loved to compete, and regularly travelled long distances to play in regional challenge events and regional and GB junior tournaments.

He was never at the top rank in the juniors, being small and slightly built until late teens, but held his own through court craft and determination.

He also began his county career as a junior, representing North of Scotland, culminating in the great enjoyment he has in playing Summer County week and the camaraderie that he has with the North of Scotland players.

As a teenager, he played in and around Edinburgh for the Blackhall club men's team.

Brian Barnet coached Fleming up until he was about 14 when Fleming moved to the newly opened Next Generation club in Newhaven where Judy Murray began coaching.

Fleming is married with two children.

He is a known supporter of Partick Thistle F.C.